womanish

• womannish (obsolete)

From Middle English wommanyssh. Equivalent to woman +‎ -ish.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwʊmənɪʃ/

womanish (comparative more womanish, superlative most womanish)

1. (often derogatory) Characteristic of a woman; effeminate, feminine. [from 14th c.]
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 113, column 1:

     […] Romans novv / Haue Thevves, and Limbes, like to their Anceſtors; / But vvoe the vvhile, our Fathers mindes are dead, / And vve are gouern'd vvith our Mothers ſpirits, / Our yoake, and ſufferance, ſhevv vs VVomaniſh.

   • 1817 (date written), Jane Austen, chapter 12, in R[aymond] W[ilson] Chambers, editor, Fragment of a Novel Written by Jane Austen, January–March 1817 […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1925, →OCLC, pages 167–168:

     The Fence was a proper Park paling in excellent condition; with clusters of fine Elms, or rows of old Thorns following its line almost every where.—Almost must be stipulated—for there were vacant spaces & through one of these, Charlotte as soon as they entered the Enclosure, caught a glimpse over the pales of something White & Womanish in the field on the other side;—it was a something which immediately brought Miss B. into her head—& stepping to the pales, she saw indeed—& very decidedly, in spite of the Mist; Miss B—seated, not far before her, at the foot of the bank which sloped down from the outside of the Paling & which a narrow Path seemed to skirt along;—Miss Brereton seated, apparently very composedly—& Sir E. D. by her side.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 259:

     I don't very much wonder at her fright. We have met before; but I owe her no grudge, and we must not wait for womanish fear.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.20:

     Friends are a comfort in misfortune, but one should not make them unhappy by seeking their sympathy, as is done by women and womanish men.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 753:

     Perhaps he did too, for he turned scarlet and turned his face away to the wall, with a womanish gesture of shyness.

2. Carried out by or pertaining to a woman. [from 14th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     And gan recomfort her in her rude wyse, / With womanish compassion of her plaint, / Wiping the teares from her suffused eyes […]

• old-womanish
• womanly

• girlish
• ladyish